Attitudes Related to Sexual Concerns Scale

Abstract

The Attitudes Related to Sexual Concerns Scale (ASCS) is a specialized psychometric instrument designed to quantify attitudes that are empirically, conceptually, or clinically linked to specific sexual concerns/dysfunctions experienced by both men and women. Unlike earlier, more generalized measures of sexual attitudes, the ASCS focuses specifically on those beliefs most relevant to clinical dysfunction and relationship distress. The scale comprises 30 items utilizing a 5-point Likert format, ranging from 1 (Strongly Agree) to 5 (Strongly Disagree).

The development of the ASCS prioritized measuring the most proximal attitude—the attitude most closely related to an individual’s personal behavior—as posited by Ajzen and Fishbein (1980). Principal components factor analysis, performed during pilot testing with college students, identified eight distinct attitudinal factors, including Body Image, Sexual Self-Understanding, Sexual Guilt, and Sexual Performance. The scale is suitable for use as both a research tool for attitude comparisons across diverse populations and as a clinical assessment tool for identifying attitudinal barriers related to client sexual concerns.

Keywords

Sexual Attitudes, Sexual Concerns, Sexual Dysfunction, Psychometrics, Body Image, Sexual Guilt, Commitment, Sexual Performance, Likert format, Factor analysis

Authors

Patricia Barthalow Koch, Craig R. Cowden

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Attitudes Related to Sexual Concerns Scale (ASCS) is to provide a targeted measure of attitudes that are specifically associated with the development, maintenance, or experience of sexual concerns and dysfunctions. Prior scales often measured general sexual liberalism or conservatism, but failed to isolate the specific attitudinal components relevant to clinical pathology or distress. The ASCS fills this gap by focusing on attitudes directly implicated in specific sexual difficulties.

The ASCS is designed for dual application: as a research tool to examine the attitudes of diverse subsamples (varying by gender, sexual orientation, age, ethnicity, and relationship status); and as a clinical tool for counselors and therapists. Clinicians can use the ASCS to systematically assess the core attitudes driving or exacerbating the sexual concerns/dysfunctions reported by their clients, thus aiding in treatment planning.

Construct

The ASCS measures a multidimensional construct encompassing negative attitudes that predispose an individual to experience relationship or sexual functioning concerns. The items are written in a personalized manner to capture the respondent’s proximal attitudes, ensuring a strong correlation between the measured belief and personal sexual behavior, consistent with the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980). Higher scores on the ASCS indicate a greater exhibition of negative attitudes associated with high levels of sexual and relationship distress, with scores ranging from 30 (least negative attitudes) to 150 (most negative attitudes).

The scale consists of eight primary subscale constructs, reflecting specific attitudinal domains identified through factor analysis:

• Sexual Self-Understanding
• Body Image
• Gender Roles
• Commitment
• Communication with a Sexual Partner
• Masturbation
• Sexual Guilt
• Sexual Performance

The inclusion of these specific domains allows for a nuanced, clinically relevant understanding of the psychological barriers contributing to sexual concerns/dysfunctions.

Validity

The validity of the ASCS was established through multiple methods, ensuring both content relevance and construct integrity. Content validity was rigorously established by conducting a comprehensive content analysis of over 40 major sexuality education, counseling, and therapy textbooks, alongside a review of more than 250 scientific articles pertaining to sexual concerns/dysfunctions. Repeated pilot testing was used to optimize the reliability and validity of the final subscales and individual items.

Construct validity was supported by the results of the principal components factor analysis, which successfully extracted the theoretically derived eight subscales. Furthermore, Concurrent validity was demonstrated through significant positive correlations between the ASCS and established questionnaires measuring various sexual attitudes, including the Mosher Sex Guilt Inventory, the Derogatis Sexual Attitudes Scale, and the Sex Anxiety Inventory.

The ASCS has also shown strong discriminant validity, successfully differentiating between key clinical groups. The scale could significantly discriminate between individuals experiencing high versus low levels of relationship concerns (t(402.87) = 6.58, p < .001), and between those with high versus low concerns regarding sexual functioning (t(400.98) = 3.50, p < .001). It has also been shown to discriminate between individuals based on their religious affiliation (Cowden & Bradshaw, 2007).

Reliability

Internal reliability of the ASCS was assessed across two distinct samples: one from a major, predominately White northeastern university (Cowden & Koch, 1995) and a second, racially/ethnically diverse sample from colleges in Washington, D.C., and North Carolina (Cowden & Bradshaw, 2007). Reliability was calculated using Cronbach alpha coefficients for both the overall scale and its eight subscales.

For the entire scale, the Cronbach alpha coefficients were .70 and .80 for the two samples, respectively, indicating acceptable to good internal consistency. Subscale reliabilities varied across the two samples, with the Masturbation subscale showing the highest consistency (.91 and .90). Other subscale reliabilities were reported as follows (Sample 1, Sample 2): Body Image (.74, .80); Sexual Self-Understanding (.84, .67); Gender Roles (.64, .63); Communications (.73, .66); Guilt (.75, .67); Commitment (.80, .66); and Sexual Performance (.66, .60).

Factor Analysis

The factor structure of the ASCS was determined through a principal components factor analysis utilizing promax rotation. This analysis was conducted on data gathered from approximately 400 college students during the pilot testing phase (Koch, 1983; Cowden & Koch, 1995). The analysis successfully extracted eight factors, which were identified as the core attitudinal dimensions related to sexual concerns.

The eight extracted factors and their respective percentages of explained variance are:

• Masturbation (42% explained variance)
• Sexual Self-Understanding (14% explained variance)
• Sexual Guilt (11% explained variance)
• Communication with a Sexual Partner (10% explained variance)
• Body Image (8% explained variance)
• Commitment (6% explained variance)
• Sexual Performance (5% explained variance)
• Gender Roles (4% explained variance)

The results highlighted that attitudes surrounding masturbation accounted for the largest proportion of explained variance, emphasizing its centrality in the overall structure of attitudes related to sexual concerns.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report psychometric scale measuring attitudes related to sexual concerns/dysfunctions.

Format: 30 items utilizing a 5-point Likert format (1 = Strongly Agree, 5 = Strongly Disagree).

Language Available: English (Original development).

Population Group: General population experiencing or susceptible to sexual concerns; validated primarily on college students/young adults.

Age Group: Adolescents and Adults.

Population Details: Initial validation sample included approximately 400 college students. Note that the Gender Roles subscale is typically deleted when administering the scale to homosexually-oriented respondents due to item phrasing referring to other-gender pairings.

Test Methodology: Self-administration, typically requiring approximately 15 minutes to complete. Respondents are instructed to indicate their choice based on their best representation of attitudes; if they have not been in a described situation, they are instructed to imagine themselves in it.

Keywords

Sexual attitudes, Proximal attitude, Sexual communication, Gender roles, Sexual performance anxiety, Masturbation attitudes, Cronbach alpha, Sexual guilt

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not provided in source content.

Affiliation Email addresses: [email protected] (for Patricia Barthalow Koch)

Correspondence Address: Patricia Barthalow Koch, Professor of Biobehavioral Health, The Pennsylvania State University, 304B Health and Human Development Building East, University Park, PA 16802.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Test Year: Initial development and primary validation documented in 1983 (Koch, 1983) and 1995 (Cowden & Koch, 1995).

Permissions & Fee: Not explicitly detailed in the source content. Researchers and clinicians should contact Patricia Barthalow Koch for usage permissions and current fee structures.

Reference’s

• Ajzen, I., & Fishbein, M. (1980). Understanding attitudes and predicting social behaviors. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
• Cowden, C. R., & Bradshaw, S. D. (2007). Religiosity and sexual concerns. International Journal of Sexual Health, 19(1), 15–24.
• Cowden, C. R., & Koch, P. B. (1995). Attitudes related to sexual concerns: Gender and orientation comparisons. Journal of Sex Education and Therapy, 21(2), 78–87.
• Derogatis, L. R., & Melisaratros, N. (1979). The DSFI: A multidimensional measure of sexual functioning. Journal of Sex &and Marital Therapy, 5, 244–281.
• Janda, L. H., & O’Grady, K. E. (1980). Development of a Sex Anxiety Inventory. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 48, 169–175.
• Koch, P. B. (1983). The relationship between sex-related attitudes and beliefs and the sexual concerns experienced by college students. Dissertation Abstracts International, 44. (UMI No. DA83-20895).
• Koch, P. B. (1988). The relationship of first intercourse to later sexual functioning concerns of adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Research, 3, 345–362.
• Koch, P. B., & Cowden, C. R. (1990). Development of a measurement of attitudes related to sexual concerns. Unpublished manuscript.
• Mosher, D. L. (1966). The development and multitrait-multimethod matrix analysis of three measures of three aspects of guilt. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 30, 25–29.

Items of the Attitudes Related to Sexual Concerns Scale

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

Respond to the following statements by circling the choice which best represents your attitudes. These statements represent feelings that might be experienced in a variety of situations. If you have not been in such a situation, imagine yourself in it and think of how you might feel. The term “partner” refers to whomever you might choose to share your sexuality with.

1 = Strongly Agree 2 = Agree

3 = Uncertain

4 = Disagree

5 = Strongly Disagree

1. 1. Overall, I feel that my body is sexually attractive.

   2. It is difficult for me to explain my sexual thoughts, attitudes, and feelings to someone else because I really don’t understand them myself.

   3. When a male and female are having a sexual relationship, I feel it is the female’s responsibility to set the sexual limits since the male will try to get as much as possible.

   4. I would feel very uncomfortable expressing my negative feelings about our sexual relations to a partner.

   5. I would feel guilty if I did not follow religious pronouncements about sexual behavior.

   6. I would not be afraid of becoming involved in a committed relationship at this point in time.

   7. I would not feel ashamed to use masturbation as a sexual release.

   8. I would worry that my partner would leave me if I did not do what she or he wanted me to do in bed.

   9. I feel a partner would be sexually attracted to my nude body.

   10. I am not confused about my sexual feelings.

   11. It is more acceptable to me for a male to have a one-night stand than for a female to have a one-night stand.

   12. It would not be difficult for me to make suggestions to a partner on ways to improve his or her sexual techniques.

   13. I would feel guilty if I did not follow my family’s teachings about sexual behavior.

   14. I would feel trapped if I was in a committed relationship at this time.

   15. I would feel good about exploring and learning about my own body through masturbation.

   16. If my partner did not reach orgasm, I would feel like a failure.

   17. Because of the way my body looks, I would feel uncomfortable in the nude with a sexual partner.

   18. It bothers me that I really do not understand why I behave sexually as I do.

   19. I do not believe that males usually use love to get sex and females usually use sex to get love.

   20. I would feel hurt if a sexual partner told me that something I do during lovemaking turns her or him off.

   21. I would not feel guilty if I had genital sexual relations (such as intercourse) with a partner.

   22. I am afraid to trust anyone in a sexual relationship at this time in my life.

   23. I would feel guilty about masturbating.

   24. I would worry that if I did not perform well sexually my partner would look for someone else.

   25. It is not difficult for me to sort out my sexual feelings, values, and behaviors.

   26. There probably would be some aspects of our sexual relationship that I just could not talk about with my partner.

   27. I would not feel guilty fantasizing about sexual experiences.

   28. I would feel like a failure if I found out that my sexual partner also engaged in solitary masturbation.

       Females Only

   29. I would feel inadequate if I could not reach orgasm during vaginal penetration (such as vaginal intercourse) and needed other kinds of stimulation in order to reach an orgasm.

       Males Only

   30. I would feel humiliated if I was unable to get an erection during a sexual encounter.